´óÏó´«Ã½

Sick feelings

I suffer from hay fever, so while in Germany, I wanted to get some antihistamines. I went to a chemist and said: Ich habe eine Polenallergie to which the chemist reacted with a suspicious look. I actually said that I'm allergic to Polish people! I should have said: Ich habe eine Pollenallergie, I'm allergic to pollen. Only one 'l' more! The difference in pronunciation is quite small (Pollen - short o, Polen - long o), but the message is quite a different one!

Sent by: Bryan

Comments

Tom 2006-07-26

To use your phraseology you could have said: Ich habe eine Blumenstauballergie, Blumenstaub being the correct German word for pollen, which is English, although understood by most Germans.

Flag this comment

Lyn 2006-06-04

You can use the word Heuschnupfen for hay fever which could avoid confusion.

Flag this comment

Share this page

Open/close

Related Links

On bbc.co.uk/languages

12-weeks email tips

Quick fix phrases 36 languages

Teachers and tutors

On bbc.co.uk

´óÏó´«Ã½ Schools

´óÏó´«Ã½ Learning

´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service Learning English

Elsewhere

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for the content of external sites

´óÏó´«Ã½ iD

´óÏó´«Ã½ navigation

´óÏó´«Ã½ © 2014 The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.